Orient : 15D14N The Legendary Silk Road: From Almaty to Tashkent by Orient Silk Road Express

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Arrive in Tashkent and transfer to your central hotel. Check-in is available from 3pm.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Almaty</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">If your flight arrives early in the morning, you’ll be taken to your comfort hotel, where your room is ready. Enjoy a delicious breakfast and relax. In the afternoon, meet your tour guides and fellow travelers for a trip to Medeo, home to the world’s highest ice-skating rink. Then, take a cable car to a ski resort at 2,200m and continue to Talgar Peak at 3,200m. End the day with a welcome dinner, enjoying the fresh air and stunning views.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Almaty</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">In the morning, a city tour with Russian Orthodox wooden cathedral, wedding palace, circus and central mosque (from the outside). Lunch at the local yurt restaurant. In the afternoon, your journey with the special train begins. A welcome drink and a short lecture await you on board.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">This morning you will reach the breathtaking Issyk Kul Lake. A visit to the Center of Nomadic Culture will bring you closer before you have time for a walk, or perhaps a small swim in the Issyk Kul. After a boat trip on the Issyk Kul, your train makes its way to Bishkek.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">After breakfast on board you will reach the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. On a tour, you will discover their numerous sights. With about 100m² of green space per inhabitant, Bishkek is one of the greenest cities in the world! And of course the Ala-Archa National Park is also part of the programme. You spend the night in a comfort hotel in Bishkek.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Bishkek</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">After breakfast, your train is leaving. Enjoy a relaxing day of lectures as your special train travels to Samarkand, Uzbekistan</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Today, explore the historic city of Samarkand, once considered the most beautiful and important city under Timur’s rule. Visit the burial town of Shah-i-Zinda, the Afrasiyab excavation sites (with a museum tour), and the iconic Registan Square, surrounded by three grand madrasas with stunning portals and glittering mosque domes. In 1917, Uzbek women symbolically burned their face veils here. You will stay two nights in a mid-range hotel.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Samarkand</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Today, you visit a silk carpet manufactory and a Uzbek artisan family that makes paper from mulberry tree bark, you will see the Ulugh Beg Observatory and the ruins of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. The palace-like Gur-i-Amir mausoleum complex can be visited from the inside. It houses the tomb of Timur, who made his capital a paradise as a famous builder, but also went down in history as a feared conqueror.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Samarkand</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">After breakfast, your special train will continue on its way. Today, you will see a folklore show of the unique tradition of this region that seems to have fallen out of time. Afterwards you will go to Shahrisabz in the birthplace of Timur. In the evening, you travel with the special train to Dushanbe, Tajiskistan.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-start para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On Board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">After arriving in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in the morning, you will discover numerous sights on a tour. Among the many parks in the city, a visit to Rudaki Park is a great way to relax in the countryside. In the late afternoon you will return to your special train and head towards Bukhara.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Located in the middle of the Kyzylkum Desert, Bukhara has about one thousand monuments that recall the glory days of the Great Silk Road. In the old town you can see the almost 50 m high Kalyan minaret and the Lab-i Hauz ensemble at the pond. In front of the Nasreddin monument listen to some of his stories and legends. In the courtyard of a madrasa, you will experience a folklore show with music, local dances and a presentation of colourful national costumes. Overnight at a mid-range hotel in Bukhara.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Bukhara</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Today, you explore Bukhara during a full-day tour. The entire city seems like a large, unique, and authentic architectural museum that has retained its old Middle Eastern countenance. In the morning we will take you to the magnificent Mir-i-Arab and the most valuable building in Central Asia, the Samanid Mausoleum. Then take a tour through the mighty fortress of Ark, a city in the city that was once the seat of government of the rulers of Bukhara. Overnight on board.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Today, visit the Khiva Oasis, from one of the best-known fairy tales from 1001 Nights. You will stand in front of the mighty city wall of Khiva with its gates and bastions of clay bricks, you will think you’ve been transported to another world: Around the Kalta Minor Minaret, life still pulsates today just as it did in ancient times. During a walking tour you can enjoy all the sights: Palaces, mosques, minarets, mausoleums and madrasas form one of the best-preserved ensembles of medieval Middle Eastern town planning. You will spend the night on board.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: On Board</span></p>

<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">In the early afternoon your special train arrives in Tashkent. City tour of Kukeldash Madrasah, the Kavoj and Amir-Timur monuments, and the typical clay houses. After the goodbye dinner, you will spend the night in a mid-range hotel.</span></p>
<p class="cvGsUA direction-ltr align-justify para-style-body"><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Overnight: Hotel in Tashkent</span></p>

<p><span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">Your journey ends today and</span> <span class="OYPEnA font-feature-liga-off font-feature-clig-off font-feature-calt-off text-decoration-none text-strikethrough-none">transfer to airport.</span></p>